Sweet 16mm: The Haunting Tales of Ambrose Bierce

Opens on October 16

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Director: Robert Enrico Run Time: 100 min. Format: 16mm Film

Vidiots presents Sweet 16mm: The Haunting Tales of Ambrose Bierce, a chilling night of Southern Gothic delights from the literary master of the twist ending. Ambrose Bierce, whose Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Kurt Vonnegut called the greatest of American short stories, was a master of psychological terror. His short, unpretentious stories – largely set during the American Civil War – often featured abrupt twist endings and their simplicity leant themselves perfectly to filmic interpretation. Not theatrically screened together since the 1960s, we will be showcasing French filmmaker Robert Enrico’s entire Ambrose Bierce Trilogy – a brilliant, poetic, and elegiac series of 3 short adaptations of Bierce’s most fiercely anti-war allegories, all shot in breathtaking black and white, and featuring some of the most haunting visuals you have ever seen. The most well known of the three is the brilliant (as well as Cannes and Oscar-winning) tale about the final romantic thoughts of a condemned man, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1961). The mind-bending Chickamauga (1962) is a dark and surreal story of a deaf-mute boy’s eerily playful interpretation of one of the bloodiest battles in the American Civil War. And finally, The Mockingbird (1962) exposes the horrors of making enemies of “the others”. It is a night that will linger in your subconscious for years to come. Everything screened on 16mm film!

Featuring:

Chickamauga (B+W, 1962, Robert Enrico)

The first part of Robert Enrico’s Civil War Trilogy, based on the short stories of Ambrose Bierce. The most famous of the trilogy, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, won several international awards, and yet this masterpiece of dark surrealism has largely been overlooked for years, yet remains even more poetic, more devastating and more haunting than Occurrence. A young boy, who is both deaf and mute wanders away from his home on the day of battle at Chickamauga creek (a battle which claimed 35,000 lives within two days and earned Chickamauga its nickname “The Bloody Pond”). Unable to hear the carnage and without the life experience to grasp the horrors around him, he wanders through an increasingly bleak and bloody landscape perceiving it as some kind of ridiculous fantasy. The counterpoint of the boy’s glee and enthusiasm to the grim realities around him make for one unforgettable cinema experience.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (B+W, 1961, Robert Enrico)

Robert Enrico’s Cannes and Oscar-winning adaptation of Ambrose Bierce’s haunting tale of a Confederate soldier about to be hanged for the crime of defacing the very bridge he’s to be executed off of. As he nears the fatal moment, he thinks back to his lovely wife and his homestead; a breathtaking romantic fever dream of a condemned man. As his noose snaps and he plunges into the water, he immediately attempts an escape towards the loving arms of his wife… or does he? The second in a trilogy of Ambrose Bierce civil war stories, this film has the added distinction of being the only foreign film ever aired as an episode of The Twilight Zone (in 1964). Breathtaking cinematography and an intricately-layered soundtrack make for an unforgettable experience.